I use standard flood light bulbs you can pick up at any home hardware or department store. These are a few dollars a bulb but heat well. Regular halogen bulbs are good too. These tend to use up less energy but put out alot of light and heat. I don't really care about brand types, as I just use regular household bulbs instead of the 2-4x more costly petstore brands. A single flood light style halogen bulb lasts me well over a year which is about the same as any basking light bought in a petstore.



As for wattage, as already mentioned, depends on your cage size, design and ambient room temperature. If your house is 60F year around, it will require higher wattage to heat your bearded dragon cage than if your house temp is 70F year around. Type of cage plays a major role as well. If you are using a screen topped glass tank, heat loss is higher than say, a wooden/plastic/pvc style cage with vents on the sides and sliding glass doors.



On average, a 75-100W bulb is perfect for a 35 gal long glass tank with screen top. (good for babies and juvenile dragons up to about 14" long). For a screen sided adult cage of at least 4'x2'x2' a 125-150W bulb is good in a place of average room temperature. (say 70F)



It will require a bit of experimentation to get the right basking temps and cage temps. What works great for me may be too cold or too hot for you.
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PHLdyPayne

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